Hiring US based freelancers from abroad?

[Elisaveta_T]

In my home country, I have started a successful solo Air Conditioning cleaning business.
I have created a very unique and compelling sales pitch, and it has worked wonders so far. I no longer do any of the sales or the cleaning myself, I have hired people as independent contractors/freelancers to do everything. I have a couple of people that do door-to-door/face to face sales on commission; they get a fixed amount of money for every client they secure. And there are a couple of people who do the cleaning with their own tools and vehicles, so they are independent contractors to whom I outsource the work. Insert a lazy boss man stereotype here, but everyone is happy with the arrangement. The contractors determine their own work hours, and the clients are happy with the service.
In my country, this type of legal arrangement with the workers is possible, but I don't know if it's the case in the US and if i can copy this existing model? The reason I want to recreate the business in the US is quite obvious: people have more disposable income and consume more goods and services in general. I have a couple of legal questions.
Do I need to create a US based LLC to sign contracts, or can I hire people remotely?
Do I need to pay taxes in US if only act as an intermediary between two freelancers?
Technically, I'm not selling any product or service in the country, but the taxman might see things differently.
Under what legal forms should the workers/contractors register: freelancer or llc? Freelancing, I assume, would be easier as a setup.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

In my home country, I have started a successful solo Air Conditioning cleaning business.
I have created a very unique and compelling sales pitch, and it has worked wonders so far. I no longer do any of the sales or the cleaning myself, I have hired people as independent contractors/freelancers to do everything. I have a couple of people that do door-to-door/face to face sales on commission; they get a fixed amount of money for every client they secure. And there are a couple of people who do the cleaning with their own tools and vehicles, so they are independent contractors to whom I outsource the work. Insert a lazy boss man stereotype here, but everyone is happy with the arrangement. The contractors determine their own work hours, and the clients are happy with the service.
In my country, this type of legal arrangement with the workers is possible, but I don't know if it's the case in the US and if i can copy this existing model? The reason I want to recreate the business in the US is quite obvious: people have more disposable income and consume more goods and services in general. I have a couple of legal questions.
Do I need to create a US based LLC to sign contracts, or can I hire people remotely?
Do I need to pay taxes in US if only act as an intermediary between two freelancers?
Technically, I'm not selling any product or service in the country, but the taxman might see things differently.
Under what legal forms should the workers/contractors register: freelancer or llc? Freelancing, I assume, would be easier as a setup.

Maybe @Johnny boy can comment, I think he does something similar with the landscaping business.

I'm not a lawyer or an accountant, but IMO, I think you can do this here, but there are big licensing hurdles to conquer and I'm pretty sure the US Taxman will be involved since the $$$ is earned here. The contractor issue also has hurdles as there are tests that need to be satisfied in order to get that IRS classification; otherwise they can audit you and claim you are subverting employees and required payroll taxes.

 

[Johnny boy]

Maybe @Johnny boy can comment, I think he does something similar with the landscaping business.

I'm not a lawyer or an accountant, but IMO, I think you can do this here, but there are big licensing hurdles to conquer and I'm pretty sure the US Taxman will be involved since the $$$ is earned here. The contractor issue also has hurdles as there are tests that need to be satisfied in order to get that IRS classification; otherwise they can audit you and claim you are subverting employees and required payroll taxes.

Everyone's an employee in the states for us.

Except the VA's in columbia and phillipines I don't know what to do about them tbh

 

[Elisaveta_T]

Maybe @Johnny boy can comment, I think he does something similar with the landscaping business.

I'm not a lawyer or an accountant, but IMO, I think you can do this here, but there are big licensing hurdles to conquer and I'm pretty sure the US Taxman will be involved since the $$$ is earned here. The contractor issue also has hurdles as there are tests that need to be satisfied in order to get that IRS classification; otherwise they can audit you and claim you are subverting employees and required payroll taxes.

If I have to describe my position, that would be a leads' generator/aggregator. Where The salespeople generate leads and I offer them to subcontractors to fulfill. I have no Idea how you classify that.

 

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